Zelda U: The Zelda title the Wii U deserves, but not the one it needs?

[VanceIX]

Skidonti said:

VanceIX said:

 

You don't think Twilight Princess being heralded by the fanbase as the second coming of OoT due to the art style and adult Link had anything to do with actual sales?

I'll give you this- Majora's Mask didn't do as well because it was released at the end of the generation. But you have to keep in mind that it still did amazing for an N64 game (seeing as that there weren't that many N64s sold anyway, at least compared to the Wii). Nintendo's Gamecube had already been announced by the time the game came out as well, taking some steam away from it.

Now, Skyward Sword launched before the Wii U had launched, and at a time when 90+ million people owned the console. And it still flopped. For comparison, 1/10 N64 owners bought MM. 1/30 Wii owners bought SS. 

When Twilight Princess came out, it was released on a fledgling system, just like how WW was when it first came out. (TP also came out on GC, but it sold much, much more on Wii). TP did much better in sales and ended up moving more units. Why? I was a huge member of the Zelda community and I remember going on forums where people were excited about the OoT-esque art style. The similarities to OoT, especially in the graphics department, certainly helped the sales a considerable amount.

Adventure of Link just wasn't that great to begin with. It's suprising that it even sold that much seeing as that it was completely different from the original in every single way but the original.

I truly believe that the Wii U has the potential to reach 25 million units. A realistic Zelda alone would probably push 500,000 more units than a cartoon one.

Now don't get me wrong, once again, I'm really liking this art style. In the end though, the game may see relatively bad sales for a 3D Zelda title, as many people will ignore it outright for the SS graphics, as sad as it is. 

 

I understand that you like the art style. But I don't think, especially in WiiU's situation, that a realistic Zelda would give that much more of a push. I'll admit I might be wrong, but it looks like I won't get the chance to find out. And the signs I see say it would not be reliable to bet on dark Zelda being a savior. I think we all want this game to sell a lot of copies, so I think the good thing to do is advocate to friends to get interested. Word of mouth still does things, it's why I bought a WiiU.

We can agree there. I'll be rooting for its success all the way. It may not have quite the impact of a realistic Zelda, but hopefully it'll be such a great title that word-of-mouth alone will push units.